Shifting carriage for rails and the like



Dec. 5, 1939. L. F.y cHlczolNE ET AL 2,182,057

SHIFTING CARRIAGE FOR RAILS AND THE LIKE Filed Nov. 25, 1935 2 Sheets-Sheet l Dec. 5, 1939. L. P. cHlcolNE ET AL SHIFTING CARRIAGE FOR RAILS AND THE LIKE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Nov. 25, 1935 @Heim-'.5 gz/IJR 117150575 Patented Dec. 5, 1939 UNITEDv S'll'li ifii'lhhlvl QFFICE Louis Philippe Chicoine and Elzear Sauv, Vaudreuil, Quebec, Canada Application November 25, 1935, Serial No. 51,548

3 Claims.

This invention relates to shifting carriages for rails and the like.

An object of the invention is to provide a simple, compact carriage which may be easily mounted upon railway rails and moved therealong to readily transport rails, timber and other articles, such as frogs, diamonds, etc. y

A further object of the invention is to provide a device of this character which is generally l advantageous in track maintenance and replacement, facilitating the handling of rails, eliminating the necessity for a large number or men to handle the rails and permitting the reversing and turning of rails particularly on bridges and l ernbankmentsv in a simple manner.

A further object of the invention is to provide a device which may be employed with facility to put inor take out expansion rails, wherein the device may form part of a ram for displacing V2Q Tails.

With these and other objects in View, the invention consists essentially in a carriage formed to provide a channel for receiving rails with anti-friction elements on various sides of said g5 channel to engage with the rail whereby said carriage may be readily mounted on and moved along the rail while being held thereon firmly. The carriage also includes a turntable element upon which rails and other devices may be mounted, said turntable element or swingable member operating to permit the swinging of said rails or devices as desired while being readily demountable, as more fully described in the following specification and illustrated in the ac- 35 companying drawings which form part of the same.

In the drawings:

Figure l is a fragmentary side elevation of a railroad rail in mounted position and carrying on its head two of the carriages supporting a single rail to be shifted along the track.

Figure 2 is a plan view of the carriage mounted on a rail head, the latter being shown in `dotted lines.

5 Figure 3 is an end elevation of the carriage shown mounted on the rail head, the latter being illustrated fragmentarily in section. v

Figure 4 is a transverse section taken through the carriage to illustrate its general construction,

50 a rail head beingy shown in dotted lines engaging with the rollers of the carriage.

Figure 5 is a .detailed fragmentary view showing one important use of the carriage which is turned upside down and mounted on a tie or 55 the ground and supports thereabove a rail turned (ci. s-iii) upside down which is designed for use as a ram, the rail being positioned to engage with the angle plate of a rail joint to forcibly shift the rails through a ramming action.

Figure 6 is a View to illustrate a use similar 5 to that referred to in Figure 5, the carriage supporting a single rail for use as a ram, the rail being tilted to engage with the upraised end of a mounted rail for forcibly shifting the mounted'rails in a ramming action. -10

Figure '7 illustrates the carriage mounted upon a rail and carrying thereabove on its turntable a single rail, the latter being illustrated during a swinging operation wherein the tongs holding the rail being shifted are positioned closely adjacent to the carriage, and

Figure 8 is a side elevation of the carriage turned upside down, as in Figure 5, to illustrate the manner in which the rail head is supported by the carriage.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, A indicates the carriage as a whole which includes the main body lil formed in any suitable manner so as to provide a main longitudinally extending channel il into which the head ci a rail B may be introduced. According to the structure illustrated, the body lli is formed with projecting arms l2 carrying vertically disposed rollers I3 which in this structure denne the sides of the channel ll. These rollers are designed to engage with the sides of the rail head and to hold the carriage in rmly mounted position while assisting as antifriction elements in the movement of the carriage along the rail. y

The rollers i3 are readily mounted on headed 35 pins lil projecting through suitable bores in the arms l2 and are rrnly and easily secured by means of cotter pins l5 or the like which, as shown in Figure 2, project through the sides of the arms traversing suitable orices in the pins.

The body lll is preferably formed from cast steel and its underside is preferably recessed as at I6 and il to receive spaced apart horizontal rollers E8 which are mounted on the transverse shafts i9 journalled in the walls of the recess I6 45 which takes the form of a longitudinal channel extending longitudinally of lthe body above the channel ll. However, the channel l@ is not essential and the lower portion of the base might be formed merely with deep semicircular recesses to house the rollers i8.

It will be noted that the horizontal rollers I3 project below the body l!! into the channel Il and consequently this channel is bounded on three sides by anti-friction elements which readily engage with the rail head, as illustrated clearly in Figure 3, and provide for the easy movement of the carriage along the rail. The major portion of the upper surface of the carriage is formed at and the centre portion thereof is slightly raised as at 2B and recessed as at 2| to form a hemispherical bearing seat which is designed to receive the complementary bearing surface of a turntable member or swin'gable element 22, the latter being mounted by means of a headed pin 23 which extends through a bore the turntable 22 and body Il) and may be secured by means of a cotter pin or the like pro.- jecting through an orifice 24 firmed in the pin, The turntable member is provided with upwardly projecting ilanges at each end and its upper surface may be slightly curved as at 2E. The turntable is designed to support rails or other articles and it will be apparent that articles mounted thereon may be readily turned or swung about with the turntable and readily tilted inasmuch as, due to the bearing surfaces and body l@ coupled with a certain amount .of longitudinal play in the mounting of the pin 23, the turntable may be tilted in all directions.

To illustrate the use of the development reference may be made first of all to Figure l, wherein a pair of carriages constructed according to the present invention are shown mounted upon one rail of a track and the turntable `or swivel member of each carriage is supporting a single rail the base of which is lying on the turntable between their upstanding flanges. It will be re.- alized that the rail is thus rmly supported and due to the plurality of antifriction elements provided on the carriages the latter can be I noved very easily along the track and can be handled readily by one man. It is not necessary, how.- ever, to employ two carriages as shown to trans.- port rails since a rail may be mounted adjacent to its middle on the turntable of one carriage and readily transported along the track.

When the rail or other object which is being transported along the track has been brought to its destination, the rail may be readily turned and swung if this is necessary since the turntable can be immediately operated by swing-ing an end of the rail, a more detailed reference to this operation being made hereafter.

On referring to Figures 5 and 6 it will be found that the carriage is particularly adaptable to putting in and taking out expansion rails wherein it is operated with a single rail to provide a very efcient ram. Referring to Figure 6 rst of all, it will be seen that the carriage is mounted .upon a rail and the turntable is supporting a single rail substantially at its midpoint, the end of the single rail being shown adjacent to a joint the track. As is well known expansion rails have to be replaced according to the season of the year. For instance, in the fall it is necessary to take out the shorter rails which have been placed in the track to allow for expansion and to introduce the longer rails to provide for contraction during the cold weather. To do this it is necessary to shift the track or, in other words, part the rails to provide for a greater space to receive the longer rail.` In Figure 6 one rail is shown slightly lifted with the edge of the head protruding slightly above the head of the adjacent rail, the angle bars at the joint having been removed. The necessary lift is arranged for by driving a spike between the base of the rail and the tie until the rail has been raised the desired amount. It is then a very simple matter to shift the4 rail since by using the single rail carried by the carriage as a ram to strike against the lifted portion of the rail it is very easily shifted due to the great force provided for by the easily moving carriage and the weight of the rail carried thereby. Inother words the combination of the carriage and single rail provides a very easily operated and eiective device `for this purpose in contradistinction to prior methods "which necessitated a large number of men to hold and swing the rail used asy a ram. This operation can also be effected without completely removing the angle b ar as Iis known -in railway practice.

On referring to Figure 5 it will be seen that the carriage, which is illustrated in dotted lines, is not mpunted on a track but is placed upside down resting on its turntable on a tie.- This leaves the vertieal rollers I3 projecting upwardly.

and the horizontalY rollers I8 exposed to provide a rolling base for the head of a rail as shown. The reversed rail is positioned at an angle to the track with its end adjacent to the angle bar `of a jQipt. By moving the rail longitudinally, which is easily accomplished by reason of the fact that the head of the rail will slide readily over the rollers of the now stationary carriage, the head of the rail can be brought into-contact with the langle plate and thus the work of rebalancing .creeping rails is very easily accomplished. s

Moreover, this'method saves damage -to the rail being used as the ram. According to pricr methods it has been usual for a number of men to swing a yrail as a ram with its head uppermost and using a corner of the base of the rail to engage with the angle bar. -This has resulted in a rounding 01T of the base of the rail thus in time v rendering it unfit for use in a track. According to the method which is made possible by my carriage construction the head o f the railwhich comprises a larger mass of metal will/,not round Off and lib-141s rails may be employed .for ramming operations in this way without there beingany damage which would cause them to be discarded. l In the forearms, thereora it will be appraiser that our carriage is most eiective variousy ways' since it has been shown that it can be used as a moving member in a rainming operation or as a stationary member which will permit a carried rail to move freely. These constitute important uses 1apart from the transportation ci articles @Nesti-,1e trast- A particularly -advantagecus featnre of our carries@ .is clearly illustrated in Figure 7. It will be nete@ that a rail mounted 11p-Q11 the carriage is .swung et right angles t@ the track unen which the carriage is mounted and that the holding tongs are positioned closely adjacent to the track. This clearly illustrates that rails .Carries by our device may be swung around by men standing close to the track and far from the ends of the rail so that in the case of bridge operations or when working on a steep embankment no diniculty is `encountered whatsoever, whereas without a. device of this character it would be necessary for the several men handling the rail to move out practical-ly to the ends of the rail in order to arrange to swing it. `(Dn einbankrnents and narrow bridge work this is, of course, an impossibility.

Of course the construction may be employed for shifting other objects besides rails, and it is very effective vin shifting timber in bridge decking and the like, it being particularly eiectivc to handle in that it can be mounted and demounted with ease. For instance inthe caseof an oncoming train the device may be readily .removed from the rail whereas where it has been necessary in the past to employ a lorry car for bridge Work and the like it has been imperative to have flag protection as it would be impossibleto remove the lorry car from the rails owing to restricted space.

Other devices, such as frogs, diamonds, and the like may also be transported readily, and if desired the turntable or swivel member can be readily removed to permity such devices to lie upon the solid base.

The device is also particularly adapted for track laying devices wherein the old rails are shifted to one side and new rails put in their place. The carriage can be placed on the old shifted track carrying the rail laying device and upon lifting the new rail the carriage can be shifted longitudinally on the old track to accurately position the new rail.

The development is also adaptable as an efr'ective vehicle or base for rail grinding machines, being positioned under the end posts of the grinder. The horizontal rollers or other antifriction device employed will permit the turning of the grinder and grinding wheel to follow the curved contour of the top of the track and thus reproduce accurately the curve as it exists on the rail even where rails are worn. The vertical roller or other antifriction device employed will hold the grinder to the centre line of its work while also lholding the machine securely on the rail.

It will be understood, of course, that the structure shown is the preferred form but that this development might be made in different ways. For instance, it is possible to construct the device from strong channel iron and to employ antifriction elements such as ball bearings in the sidel of the channel member and in its top, whereas a similar construction might be used with rollers to produce a device having equal effect. We have not, however, illustrated a construction other than that preferred.

Various modifications may be made in the invention without departing from the spirit thereof or the scope of the claims and, therefore, the exact forms shown are to be taken as illustrative only and not in a limiting sense, and we desire that only such limitations shall be placed thereon as are imposed by the prior art or are specifically set forth in the appended claims.

What we claim as our invention is:

l. A rail handling device comprising a carriage, a plurality of spaced apart anti-friction devices mounted adjacent both edges of one face of the carriage, extending at right angles to the plane thereof and adapted to engage the sides of the head of a standard type rail on which the device may be mounted, a plurality of further anti-friction devices extending parallel 'to the plane of the carriage and adapted to engage the top of afrail on which the device may be mounted, and a support freely rotatable on a vertical axis on the face of the carriage opposite that' from which the anti-friction devices extend.

2. A device as dened in claim 1, in which the anti-friction devices consist of unanged rollers.

3. A device as dened in claim l, in which the anti-friction devices consist of unanged rollers and the rollers extending parallel to the plane of the carriage are partly housed in recesses therein.

LOUIS PHILIPPE CHICOINE.

ELZEAR sAUvii. 

